Nickneven

A gigantic malignant hag of Scotch superstition. Dunbar has
well described this spirit in his Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy.

<Nicodemused into Nothing that is, the prospects of one's life ruined
by a silly name; according to the proverb, “Give a dog a bad name and
hang him.” It is from Sterne's Tristram Shandy (vol. i. 19), on
the evil influence of a silly name on the mind of the bearer of it.

“How many Caesars and Pompeys by mere inspiration of the names have
been rendered worthy of them; and how many might have done well in the
world had they not been Nicodemused into nothing.”